Parties rush to pick candidates for top job

Nine months to the General Election, three CORD parties have planned meetings to endorse presidential candidates. The planned events come barely a month after President Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee Party and Raila Odinga of ODM held their National Governing Council meetings at Bomas of Kenya to set off their presidential campaigns. Kalonzo Musyoka's Wiper party, Moses Wetang'ula's Ford-Kenya and Musalia Mudavadi's Amani National Congress also have major meetings in three weeks' time to formally receive their respective parties' endorsements. The Opposition leaders are separately stepping up their presidential bids even as they mull over talks to form a "super alliance". Wiper will hold its National Delegates Conference on December 10, while Ford-Kenya has lined up a three-day event from November 24-26. Mudavadi is set to hold his party's first National Governing Council meeting on December 9 to endorse the his bid for the top seat.

On Monday, Wiper held a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting and announced that the party would ratify its resolve to okay Kalonzo to run for president for the second time."We have agreed as NEC that on December 10, the National Delegates Conference will converge in Nairobi to ratify and endorse party leader Kalonzo Musyoka to vie for the presidency," said Wiper Secretary General and Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar. ENDORSE LEADER Ford-Kenya's NEC will retreat on November 24 and 25 to amend its constitution ahead of a November 26 General Council meeting, during which the party will endorse its leader for the presidency. Yesterday, Ford-Kenya Secretary General Eseli Simiyu told The Standard that the two-day retreat would discuss the party's nomination plans, including forming a National Elections Board. "The general council will set a date for the NDC to ratify the resolutions. We expect the NDC to be in December," said Dr Simiyu.